


Once Upon a Time

by Alexis_Payton



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, One-Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 08:50:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5284403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexis_Payton/pseuds/Alexis_Payton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Regina and Emma are actresses on a popular TV Show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon a Time

**Author's Note:**

> I was procrastinating while I was supposed to be doing a presentation and then wrote this instead, in like an hour. Sorry if it sucks too much.
> 
> Disclaimer: This fic does not seek to imply that it is based on a True Story

 

Regina was seated in the large comfortable loveseat of her hotel suite, absently scrolling through her Twitter timeline when she heard a knock on her door. Frowning, she pulled her silky white kimono closer to her body, wondering who would disturb her after ten in the evening when they knew that she had to be up early the next day. Since she wasn’t even expecting room service, she halted a few feet away from the door and stared at it for a moment before softly calling out:

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Emma.” Came the barely audible response, but not from behind the door Regina was currently staring at, but from somewhere else in the room.

“Where are you?” Regina called out confusedly.

Emma Swan never spoke to her unless they were on set or at a convention or placed next to each other during interviews. So what was she doing in Regina’s room, sounding all muffled and faraway? Regina walked to the large closet and opened the doors. No, apparently Emma wasn’t in there either. Bathroom perhaps?

She was heading toward her en-suite when she heard the disembodied voice again, accompanied thankfully, by another round of knocking to show Regina exactly where it was coming from.

“Open up, Regina!”

It was only then that Regina noticed the door in her room that led to the adjacent suite. Still befuddled by what was happening, or rather who was seeking her out, she blindly unlocked the door and a head of long blonde curls, dressed in long striped cotton pants and a white tank top came marching through.

Emma Swan stalked until she was in the middle of the room and then spun around, pointing a reproachful finger at Regina.

“You need to stop what your doing!” Emma angrily accused and Regina’s brows continued to knit together in bemusement.

Was she dreaming all of this bizarreness?

“Whatever are you talking about, Miss Swan?”

The blonde managed to look even more infuriated at the question.

“Well, for starters, stop calling me Miss Swan! We’re not on set now, nobody’s around to see you putting on airs and acting better than the rest of us. So call me _Emma_.”

Regina silently turned away from the angry blonde and went to pour herself a drink. Herself, Emma, and some of the other cast were all appearing on a popular Talk Show the next day. Five seasons in, and ratings were dropping fast. They needed to be more approachable to their audience to get more people to watch the show live and that meant being out in the public together as frequently as possible.

Maybe the pressure had finally gotten to Emma? Her story arc this season has been in the spotlight and everyone and their mother had something to say about Emma’s performance and the dissimilarity to the character she was use to playing. And if there was one thing Regina knew about her elusive blonde co-star, it was – so very ironically – that Emma Swan _did not_ like attention.

Coincidentally, and of course on the contrary, Regina Mills simply thrived on it.

“All right, _Em-ma_.” Regina grinned. “What can I do for you?” She asked politely.

It wouldn’t do for anyone to hear them arguing in the middle of the night. Regina cringed at all the rumours that would fly around at just the hint that Emma had been in her room at all.

She took out a beer from the mini fridge and walked over, handing it to Emma. It was Emma’s favourite. On the few occasions they’d been at the same gathering, Regina had seen Emma with one in hand at least once during the evening. So she hid her smirk when Emma confusedly accepted the beverage with a timid ‘thank you’ and then went to recline on her couch again.

She watched Emma – still standing in the middle of the room - take a slow sip from the beer, big green eyes nervously darting around, seemingly looking everywhere save at Regina. It was after her initial confusion wore off, to be replaced by mild irritation at the intrusion and lack of answers, that Regina’s eyes landed on the tablet phone Emma was clutching against her chest.

“Emma?” She softly coaxed, wondering whether Emma Swan was on drugs. It was unfortunately very common in their line of work, but she’d never seen any indication that Emma could be a user. Maybe the blonde, in anticipation of all the interviews the next day, had tried it for the first time that night and was now having some sort of episode?

Regina quickly rose from her seat and walked closer so she could determine whether Emma’s pupils were dilated and if she should call her people or Emma’s people to come and deal with it. She really didn’t want her name involved in any of this if Emma went crazy and started trashing Regina’s room. Panicking at the thought, Regina reached up to take hold of Emma’s bicep – absently impressed at and envious of the muscle definition – and tried to guide Emma back to her own room so that whatever happened, would happen in _there_.

Emma however, jumped back from Regina’s touch as though she was being tazered, and yes, Regina saw that her pupils were indeed slightly dilated. Or maybe it was just the lighting in the room... It was in that moment that Regina realised that she didn’t have a clue as to what to check for, so she just flat out asked.

“Are you on something? Do you need me to call someone for you?” Regina was pleased at how gentle and reassuring she sounded - in spite of her growing irritation. She had no idea why she hadn’t won an Emmy yet.

“What?” Emma’s brows crinkled adorably. “No! I’m not high! I don’t use drugs, Regina!” She emphasized, like she needed Regina to believe her about that more than anything else in the world.

And for some reason Regina did believe her.

“Okay... So are you going to tell me what’s going on? Why you’re here?”

Emma sighed, looking dejected for all of five seconds before her anger returned. Regina had briefly forgotten about the angry stomping of before. Maybe Emma Swan suffered from some sort of  mental disorder? Though the lovely blonde wasn’t particularly close to anyone on set, she was charmingly friendly with everyone. She seemed to be most comfortable around the male actors and Mary-Margaret, so why Emma had sought out Regina that night, still remained a mystery. Emma usually ignored the brunette as best she could.

“I’m here because of _this_ , Regina.” Emma shoved the tablet at Regina whose eyes instantly recognized the familiar gifs and images of their two characters. She lighted on one particular frame where she and Emma seemed to be kissing. Their fans were really talented. Had Regina not known for a fact that they hadn’t kissed, she would’ve thought the photograph real without closer examination.

“This has been going on for five years, any particular reason you chose to discuss it tonight?” Regina amicably requested.

Emma huffed and pulled out her phone, her fingers flying over the screen for a moment before shoving Regina’s Twitter profile in her face.

“Because you publically ship our characters Regina, and since _you_ do, everyone expects me to do so too. And because I don’t, all of a sudden I’m the homophobic bitch who crushes people’s dreams.”

Regina’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Yes, a few fans have come down hard on Emma. And very unfairly so. Regina too had received many angry tweets demanding she show more of an interest in her character’s actual love interest on the show.

“We can’t please everyone, Emma. I’m not sure why this is getting to you. It’s part of the business...”

“I’m not homophobic.” Emma professed and went to dejectedly sit down on the couch Regina had vacated.

The brunette warily followed after her.

“I didn’t say that you were.”

“You’re giving these people false hope and it’s _not_ right.” Emma muttered.

“Who said it’s false? Granted, I don’t know where the writers are going with the plot, but they haven’t closed the idea, so therefore it is in actual fact still a possibility.” Regina explained.

For all she knew it would turn out that her character’s mother was never her mother and that Regina was actually somehow Emma’s character’s biological sister and some time-travelling fiasco was responsible for it all. Regina had given up on trying to logically predict what would happen next on the show, so now she just showed up to work and performed the script she’d been given.

“They won’t do it. And if they do... I don’t want to be type cast as gay for the rest of my career.”

“Who says you would be?” Regina negated, even while she pondered on Emma’s words.

“It won’t be for you, because you’re the lady gay. I’m more butch, I look more gay than you do. They’re already saying that I have no chemistry with Killian. And _that’s_ your fault too!”

“How is your lack of chemistry with that ruffian my fault?” Regina rolled her eyes.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Speak like you’re from high society England without even having a British accent?”

Regina laughed out loud.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that, Emma.”

“Doesn’t matter. It works for you, so keep doing it.” The blonde muttered and took another sip of her beer.

Regina curiously stared at her for a moment longer, not sure what to make of the fact that Emma Swan seemed to be having a nervous breakdown in her room.

“You never answered my question.” She gently prodded.

“You...” Emma seemed to cringed before gathering herself. “You have chemistry with a post box, Regina. I’ve seen you practically make love to a teaspoon... And I’ve noticed that you’re even worse when we’re in a scene together. Your body language, the way you look at me and speak to me... You’re responsible for ninety per cent of the gifs and vids out there of us. It’s your fault that they ship our characters and it’s your fault that I can’t help but play off of you and then the scene turns into all this subtext that has absolutely nothing to do with the script.”

Regina remained thoughtfully quiet for a while. She was sure that Emma had complimented her in that little speech, but mostly Emma seemed to be blaming her for them having so many fans that want to see their characters together.

“You do realise that the script is sometimes written in a way to purposely be interpreted as ambiguous, don’t you?” Regina slowly questioned.

Would the producers really not have told Emma this? They’d told Regina in season one already to just go with it. Well, then they told her to tone it down. Regina tried. She tries still, but sometimes she just slips, because yes, Emma does play off of her so very naturally.

“What?” Emma’s eyes were wide with shock even as they flickered with realisation and understanding. “No!” She exclaimed, still trying to deny the obvious.

Such an adorable idiot, Regina fondly thought. Emma’s been in the business for a long time, but she was still so naive when it came to certain things. Maybe that’s why the producers never told her, especially since Emma seemed to react to Regina in exactly the way they wanted her to.

“Yes, Miss Swan.” Regina smiled softly.

“But that’s queerbaiting, why are you okay with this?” Emma was over her shock – deep down she had probably known the writers were playing it up already – and back to being upset again. “You pretend to care about these people, but you’re just setting them up for disappointment.”

“I’m supporting them.” Regina gritted out, having lost her initial curiosity as to what had gotten into Emma Swan and was now just getting angry at the accusations. “Neither they nor I know where this show is going, and all of us hope that it ends with them being together. How is that giving them false hope?”

Emma frowned for a while, lost in her own head, the blonde’s befuddlement endearing enough to stem Regina’s irritation.

“So you really think our characters are meant for each other?” Emma turned to her with disbelieving eyes. “And if they tell you to play gay on a family show you’d happily do it?”

“My character has murdered people in cold blood, had that long time dubiously consented affair with someone who apparently despised her, she then also had an affair with her current soulmate while his wife was incapacitated. _Vault-sex_ Emma. Children did _not_ need to see that. Even if we were on a family show in every sense of the term, why does having gay characters on it make it less so?” Regina stared at Emma in challenge, who quickly looked away from her again. She sighed and continued on. “I think that if your character had been a man who had met my character, and the plot remained mainly the same, it would be the greatest love story to have ever been told.” She honestly remarked. It didn’t matter to Regina that they were two women at all. She just thought that it made all the sense in the world for them to be together.

Emma then nodded and placed her beer and the tablet down on the table.

“So you wouldn’t mind kissing me?” She asked, her hands on her lap.

“Why would I? Are you a bad kisser?” Regina smirked at Emma’s instant blush.

“Wouldn’t it be strange for you?”

“Kissing Robin is strange. He’s a bit sloppy and does this weird thing where he pretends to eat my entire face.” Regina turned up her nose in exaggerated distaste, getting Emma to giggle and considered it a job well done. “Are you saying you wouldn’t want to kiss me?” She smirked devilishly at the blonde.

When Emma turned an even darker shade of red, Regina’s brows lifted at the reaction. She watched as Emma scrambled for her tablet again and started scrolling through her Tumblr dashboard.

“Apparently we’ve kissed already.” Emma lamely joked, clearly wanting to distract Regina from looking at her, so the brunette turned to the screen in an attempt to make her mysterious co-star comfortable in her presence again. Regina couldn’t remember them ever having spent as much uninterrupted alone time together, as they had thus far that evening.

“Have you read some of the fanfiction they’ve written about us?” Emma asked, quickly going to her bookmarks.

Regina’s brows lifted again, because why was Emma keeping these stories _bookmarked_? Regina – out of curiosity – had searched through a few stories too a few years back. The first one she found... Well, it had been porn. Written porn. And it made her very uncomfortable. Not because Regina was uncomfortable with pornography in general, or prudish for that matter, but because it was _her_ they were describing. Yes, it was the persona of the character she was playing in those stories, but still, it was _Regina’s_ body they were making do all of those things. She felt sort of violated.

“I’ll email you some good ones.” Emma absently murmured at her side and then went about doing exactly that.

Regina didn’t even know that Emma had her real email address.

“But still, Regina. You need to stop playing it up, a lot of people are going to be very disappointed if and most likely _when_ , it doesn’t happen.”

“Are you criticising my acting?” She sternly asked, not having been offended, but wanting to see how Emma would react. Predictably, a red flush spread up the blonde’s chest.

“No, no I’m not.” Emma quickly assured.

Regina regally rose from her seat and looked down her nose at Emma.

“I am the Evil Queen, dear.” She sneered and stalked in front of Emma like a caged panther. “I’m extremely powerful and absolutely gorgeous.” She arrogantly stated, watching behind her mask as Emma’s eyes followed her every move with rapt attention, pupils dilating even further.

Hmmm... Perhaps not the lighting then.

“My powers of seduction is as much of a strength as my magic.” She stopped in front of the stunned looking blonde and lent down, her kimono falling open, her cleavage almost in Emma’s face. Regina didn’t notice as she was still in character, and menacingly closed the space between. She placed a palm on either side of Emma’s head, resting on the back of the couch and stared deep into her eyes. “Men... Women... it doesn’t matter who I have to seduce to get my way.” Regina lasciviously grinned.

Emma’s green eyes bored into her own for a long moment, Regina watching them search her own gaze and then flicking down to her lips. Emma used to do that a lot during season one takes. Back when they had a lot more scenes together than now. Back then, Regina had thought that Emma was doing as instructed by the producers... But in that moment, Emma had given no indication that she was acting this improvised scene with Regina.

Frowning in confusion as to the breathless reaction she had caused, Regina quickly felt herself being moved out of the way till she flopped back in her seat and Emma Swan was up and nervously pacing in front of her a moment later.

“That’s all fine, Regina, but your character isn’t that woman anymore and you _still_ do it.” Emma explained, gulping down the rest of her beer.

“Well I don’t know when she’s going to have another relapse again, the woman can’t seem to ever find happiness. Maybe there’s still a little evil lurking inside of her.” Regina shrugged. “Maybe she’ll be back to fully fledge villain next season.”

“She’s changed.” Emma decisively murmured, going to place down her empty bottle.

Regina watched her for a moment and then realisation struck.

“You ship them too!” She excitedly exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

Emma looked around the room again, avoiding her gaze. “No I don’t.” She muttered.

“You _do_!” Regina grinned brightly and then put on her character’s voice again. “You can lie to yourself, you can lie to your parents, but you can’t lie to me, Emma.” She quoted and laughed when the blonde spun around to finally look at her.

“Don’t even go there.” Emma uselessly warned, but couldn’t quite hide the tiny grin she was fighting.

“That’s why you don’t have any chemistry with Jones! You want _our_ characters to be together!” Regina beamed victoriously.

“Maybe I’m just a bad actress.” Emma smiled self-deprecatingly.

“Yes, I thought that too.” Regina earnestly nodded and her heart clenched when Emma’s face instantly fell. She had meant it as a joke. “But then you saved me from the darkness at the end of last season and I got _chills_ , Emma. It was beautiful... You were _amazing_.”

Regina hesitantly stepped forward and took hold of Emma’s arms to make sure the woman would continue looking at her.

“You’re a _very_ good actress.” She sincerely complimented and delighted in the blush on Emma’s cheeks.

Absently Regina ran her hands over Emma’s biceps and then realised what she was doing, before she dropped her hands all together but seemed unable to move out of the blonde’s space.

“You know, the trick is not to play favourites, but to support them all...” Regina advised in order to say something so that it wasn’t just the two of them staring at each other in the suddenly way too silent hotel room.

She didn’t often become awkward around people. Regina could work a crowd like nobody’s business. But being alone with Emma Swan in her room, dressed only in their pyjamas, made Regina Mills feel utterly exposed. Or maybe it was the way those green eyes were suddenly staring right into her as though they were searching for something... profound.

“I can’t ship our characters, because I can’t – I don’t - want to play gay in this or any other show.” Emma softly explained again.

“It’s not as bad a career move as it used to be a few years ago.”

“It’s not about my career...” Emma murmured, still intently searching Regina face for something.

“Then what’s it about?” Regina frowned, wondering what it could be then.

“I need you to stop playing your scenes the way you do, because-” Emma seemed to take a fortifying breath, “- because you’re giving people – people like _me_ – false hope.” She eventually confessed and held Regina’s gaze so determinedly that Regina didn’t immediately register what Emma was saying, but eventually, like a bolt of lightning to the brain, she finally did.

“Oh...” Regina gasped.

Emma Swan had just come out to her.

“Oh...” Regina said again, for lack of having anything else to say.

“Does anyone else know?” Regina wondered, because the two of them weren’t close, they barely knew each other. Why would Emma choose to tell _her_ this? She could’ve just told Regina to stop. Well, Emma had tried to do that and Regina didn’t understand the problem. Now she could see why it was such a personal issue for the blonde.

Emma shook her head no, her gaze still penetrating as she watched Regina’s reaction.

“Oh.” Regina breathed again.

She had not expected this _at all_. Regina was open minded, for sure, but she’d never been with a woman before. Did Emma think she was gay too because she supported the LGBT community? Hopefully Emma had Gaydar that told her that Regina _wasn’t_ gay, because Regina knew for a fact that choosing that moment to affirm her heterosexuality, would be the _worst_ idea ever.

“Thank you for telling me.” She eventually murmured.

Emma just nodded, still staring at her in that unnerving and intense way. The blonde sometimes had this quiet intensity. Often just sitting by herself on set, drawing Regina’s attention while Emma herself seemed off in her own little world.

“Still want our characters to get together?” Emma seriously asked, face stoic, spine rigid with pride and tension.

“I don’t see how this changes anything.” Regina honestly answered. “Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you’re attracted to me.” She uncomfortably laughed and then cringed as she wondered why in the hell she would say something like _that_. Even if Emma, or any other male actor, was attracted to her, it shouldn’t matter on set. Business was business.

Emma just hummed noncommittally, causing Regina’s brow to rise in question.

“Well, thank you for the talk.” Nervous Emma was back and she was already walking towards the door.

“Emma.” Regina called out without meaning to.

The blonde stopped and then turned around to face her. Regina instinctively took a step forward into her personal space. Years of conditioning more than anything else driving her to do so.

Regina wasn’t sure why she had stopped Emma, or what she wanted to say, so she just stared at Emma’s lovely collarbones for a while as she bought herself some time.

Her breath hitched when a pair of slender fingers lightly pressed underneath her chin and gently coaxed her to look up. Regina became lost in a soft green gaze, pupils blown wide and shining with adoration and understanding. Emma then took a step forward and pressed their thinly clad bodies flushed together.

Regina gasped, suddenly aware of how fast her heart was beating, how her chest was practically heaving and how completely stuck she seemed to be in that moment.

“Emma...” She helplessly whispered, in complete disbelief at her body’s response to the blonde.

Regina knew what was about to happen, and for the life of her, she couldn’t – didn’t want to – stop it from happening.

Emma Swan just warmly smiled, ducked her head down, and pressed their lips together.

* * *

 

THE END

* * *


End file.
